Research Expertise

Description

Our overall goal is to exploit synthetic chemistry to probe biological mechanisms in order to understand and provide treatment for disease. Neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors are an extremely exciting set of ion channels that we are targeting by developing sub-type specific ligands. Areas of particular interest to us are: addiction, pain management, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Schizophrenia and anxiety. In another area we employ a slightly different approach. Rather than targeting specific group of receptors the focus is on the preparation of a diverse range of heterosugars, in which the endocyclic oxygen is replaced with another heteroatom e.g. sulphur, nitrogen or selenium. This class of compounds have exciting anti-viral, anti-cancer and anti-bacterial properties and they are also glycosidase inhibitors. The diseases we are targeting via this approach include Hepatitis C, HIV, avian flu, cancer, MRSA, drug resistant TB, diabetes (type 1 and type 2) and obesity. Other areas of interest include chiral alpha-oxy anions, chiral reactions of electron-rich alkenes and remote chirality